Eccentric Dust Ring in the IRS 48 Transition Disk

• Published in: Astrophysical journal. Letters Vol. 948; no. 1; p. L2
• Main Authors: Yang, Haifeng, Fernández-López, Manuel, Li, Zhi-Yun, Stephens, Ian W., Looney, Leslie W., Lin, Zhe-Yu Daniel, Harrison, Rachel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Austin The American Astronomical Society 01.05.2023; IOP Publishing
• Subjects: Accretion disks; Celestial bodies; Dust; Dust continuum emission; Eccentric orbits; Emission; Flux density; Grain size; Interferometry; Interplanetary dust; Planet formation; Protoplanetary disks; Submillimeter astronomy
• ISSN: 2041-8205; 2041-8213
• DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/acccf8

Crescent-shaped structures in transition disks hold the key to studying the putative companions to the central stars. The dust dynamics, especially that of different grain sizes, is important to understanding the role of pressure bumps in planet formation. In this work, we present deep dust continuum observation with high resolution toward the Oph IRS 48 system. For the first time, we are able to significantly trace and detect emission along 95% of the ring crossing the crescent-shaped structure. The ring is highly eccentric with an eccentricity of 0.27. The flux density contrast between the peak of the flux and its counterpart along the ring is ∼270. In addition, we detect a compact emission toward the central star. If the emission is an inner circumstellar disk inside the cavity, it has a radius of at most a couple of astronomical units with a dust mass of 1.5 × 10 −8 M ⊙ , or 0.005 M ⊕ . We also discuss the implications of the potential eccentric orbit on the proper motion of the crescent, the putative secondary companion, and the asymmetry in velocity maps.